Fountain pen barrel



June 13, 1939. G. LARS'EN 2,162,223

FOUNTAIN PEN BARREL Filed March 51, 1937 n nn m nn nn m nu Patented June 13, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIE FOUNTAIN PEN BARREL Application March 31, 1937, Serial No. 133,935

5 Claims.

This invention relates to a novel and impro-ved form of fountain pen barrel, the novel features of which will be best understood from thefollowing description and the annexed drawing, in which I have shown a selected embodiment of the invention and in which:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal view of a fountain pen having a barrel constructed according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a face View of a sheet of material from which part of the barrel is formed;

Fig. 3 is a view of one of the sheets of material incorporated in the sheet appearing in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a view illustrating the manufacture of the barrel;

Fig. 5y is a section on the line 5 5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section through the wall of the barrel, at the location indicated by the line 6 6.

Figs. '7 and 8 are views similar to Fig.`5 but showing different forms which the invention may take.

For the purpose of illustration, I have shown the invention as embodied in a fountain pen provided with the usual writing point I and a barrel provided with the usual threads 2 for securing a cap (not shown) over the point when the pen is not in use. The barrel also comprises a reservoir part 3 and an operating part 4. The reservoir part is translucent so that the amount of ink therein may be readily determined, and the operating part contains any suitable operating means for filling the reservoir, usually by suction of ink through a feed leading to the point. The details of such operating mechanism are not necessary to an understanding of the invention and therefore they will not be described. They may comprise a jointed lever 5 adapted to operate any suitable suction-pro l ducing or pump device for filling the reservoir.

In pen barrels of this general type wherein the reservoir part is provided with a translucent wall, various expedients have been adopted in construcing that wall. Sometimes it has been practically transparent or slightly colored, but generally speaking it has been so made as to make it appear not noticeably translucent. That result is achieved by this invention.

It is common in the art to form a fountain pen barrel from a sheet of suitable material, usually cellulose in character, by curving or bending the sheet into the cylindrical form commonly used in a fountain pen barrel. Such a procedure is preferably followed in practicing this invention.

The sheet material used in making a pen barrel may have various appearances, and one of the forms of sheet material used is that commonly known .as pearl This material may have various colors and specic designs and it has been found quite suitable for fountain pen barrels. For the purpose of illustration, 1 shall assume that the appearance of pearl is to be maintained in the fountain pen barrel of this invention, and shall refer to that appearance as a distinctive design incorporated in the material of the barrel wall.

The operating part 4 of the barrel may be formed in the usual way, and I have indicated it as being formed of pearl material. This material is preferably in the form of a single sheet, a fragment of which is shown in Fig. 6 and is designated by the numeral 6. When formed of a thickness which is practical for the wall of a fountain pen barrel, this material is substantially opaque. By this invention, however, it is possible to make the wall of the reservoir part also embody the same general design and give the same general appearance as the wall of the operating part, while providing the necessary translucency. To achieve this result, preferably I form the wall of the reservoir part as a comu posite sheet. This composite sheet, as best shown in Figs. 5 and 6, comprises a relatively thin sheet 'l which may be of the same material as the sheet l in the wall of the operating part. When this material is made thin enough, it may have the desired translucency, and thus the amount of translucency may be controlled by the thinness of the sheet. On the other hand, less of the pearl design may be used in the sheet l, if desired, in order to make that sheet more translucent. This latter is the preferred practice, particularly when the underlying design of the pearl in the sheet 'l is supplemented by a secondary design as illustrated and as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 4. This design is shown at 8 as incorporating a diamond-shaped gure, and it may be applied to the upper surface of the sheet l by lithography or by other methods.

After the lithographing is applied to the sheet l, that sheet may be secured to clear or translucent sheets of Celluloid or the like, indicated at 9 and I 0, and disposed on opposite sides of the sheet 1. The sheets may be secured together 'in any manner well known in the art, as by cementing and the application of pressure. The total thickness of the composite sheet il resulting from the joining of the sheets l, 9, and lil is of approximately the same thickness as the sheet 6 in the wall of the operating part, as

plainly shown in Fig. 6, and it will have somewhat the appearance depicted in Fig. 2. The secondary design 8, which is applied to the sheet 1, is shown as comprising alternate opaque and translucent portions, through which translucent portions the fundamental underlying and distinotive design of the pearl may appear, as is indicated in Fig. 2.

The general appearance of the complete pen is indicated generally in Fig. 1, and it will be seen that the result is a pen barrel in which both the Walls of the operating and reservoir parts have the same underlying distinctive design of the pearl, while, in the embodiment selected for purposes of illustration, the underlying design is supplemented in the wall of the reservoir part by a secondary design such that it will blend well with the underlying design. The secondary design itself may take any one of many different forms, but for the purpose of illustration I have selected the design illustrated and claimed in my Design Patent No. 105,022, granted June 22, 1937. It will be readily apparent, however, that the invention herein is not limited to any particular design.

In Fig. 7 is shown a different embodiment, in that here the wall of the reservoir part is shown as formed of a sheet I2 of pearl, which may be relatively thin, its thickness and the amount of pearl design therein being properly selected to give the desired amount of translucency, to the wall of which it forms a part. Secured to the surface I3 of the sheet I 2 is a second sheet I4, which is a composite sheet made up of strips of material, some of which are relatively opaque and some of which are relatively transparent. Here again the thickness of the sheet and the relative opaqueness and transparency will be controlled to achieve the desired end. In the particular form illustrated in Fig. 7, I have shown alternate strips I5 as opaque and alternate strips I6 as transparent, although this particular arrangement may of course be varied in practice. These strips may be secured together into the composite sheet by suitable adhesive, as known in the art. and then the composite sheet I4 may be secured to the sheet I2 along the surface I3 likewise by suitable adhesive, with or without pressure, as known in the art. I assume that the material is of cellulosic character'which may be readily secured together by known adhesives.

In Fig. 8 is shown another form which the invention may take. In this case, the sheet I2 of pearl is assembled with a sheet I'I of unitary construction and which is relatively clear or transparent. On the surface I8 of the sheet I1 is applied a printed or lithographed design, which may be similar to the design shown at 8in the iirst described embodiment or which may take any other desired form. While this design is shown as being applied to the surfacel of the sheet I'I, it is of course apparent that it may equally well be applied to the adjacent surface of the sheet I2.

While other details have likewise been shown and described for the purpose of illustration, it is to be understood that those details may vary without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A fountain pen barrel divided lengthwise thereof into a reservoir part and an operating part, the barrel walls of said parts being of substantially the same thickness, the wall of the 0perating part being relatively opaque and having a distinctive design incorporated therein, the wall of the reservoir part being formed of a plurality of relatively translucent sheets secured together and one of said sheets having incorporated therein the same general design as in the wall of the operating part but to a less extent, thus maintaining the translucency of the reservoir Wall while creating the same underlying design throughout the walls of both parts.

2. A fountain pen barrel divided lengthwise thereof into a reservoir part and an operating part, the barrel walls of said parts being of substantially the same thickness, the wall of the operating part being relatively opaque and having a distinctive design incorporated therein, the wall of the reservoir part being formed of a plurality of relatively translucent sheets secured together and one of said sheets having incorporated therein the same general design as in the wall of the operating part, thus maintaining the translucency of the reservoir wall while creating the same underlying design throughout the walls of both parts.

3. A fountain pen barrel divided lengthwise thereof into a reservoir part and an operating part, the barrel walls of said parts being of substantially the same thickness, the wall of the operating part being relatively opaque and having a distinctive design incorporated therein, the Wall of the reservoir part being formed of a plurality or relatively translucent sheets secured together and one of said sheets having incorporated therein the same general design as in the wall of the operating part and the surface of one of the sheets within the wall having a secondary partly translucent design applied thereto, thus maintaining the translucency of the reservoir wall While creating the same underlying design throughout the walls of both parts.

4. A fountain pen barrel divided lengthwise thereof into a reservoir part and an operating part, the barrel walls of said parts being of substantially the same thickness, the wall of the operating parts being relatively opaque and having a distinctive design incorporated therein, the wall of the reservoir part being formed of a relatively translucent sheet interposed between two other translucent sheets and having incorporated therein the same general design as in the wall of the operating part and one surface of said interposed sheet having a secondary partly translucent design applied thereto, thus maintaining the traslucency of the reservoir wall while creating the same underlying design throughout the walls of both parts.

5. A fountain pen barrel divided lengthwise thereof into a reservoir part and an operating part, the barrel walls of said parts being of substantially the same thickness, the wall of the operating part being relatively opaque and having a distinctive design incorporated therein, the wall of the reservoir part being formed of a plurality of relatively translucent sheets secured together and one of said sheets having incorporated therein the same general design as in the wall of the operating part and another one of said sheets being partly opaque and partly transparent, thus maintaining the translucency of the reservoir wall while creating the same underlying design throughout the walls of both parts.

GABRIEL LARSEN. 

